Adolescent Female Perspectives in an Urban Safety Net: Developing an Intervention Focusing on Sexual Health and Text-Messaging.

Our goal was to develop a patient-centered text-message intervention for adolescent females in an urban safety-net health system. We conducted interviews with adolescent females to explore sexual health knowledge and inform the development of a text-messaging intervention. Focused group discussions (FGDs) verified or challenged interview themes and elicited preferences for intervention design. Forty-two females participated, including 15 interviewees and 27 FGD participants. Over half (67%) were Hispanic/Latina, 19% Black, 10% White and 5% Asian. The average age was 16 (±1.5) and 55% reported ever having sex. Participants felt susceptible to and were more concerned with preventing unintended pregnancies than sexually transmitted infections, and described more barriers to condom use than other contraceptive methods. Their input informed the development of a text-messaging intervention, which is described. This study supports the acceptability of a patient-centered texting intervention for promoting and normalizing healthy sexual behaviors among adolescent females in an urban safety-net setting.

A Qualitative Study of Hospitalists' Perceptions of Patient Satisfaction Metrics on Pain Management.

Hospital initiatives to promote pain management may unintentionally contribute to excessive opioid prescribing. To better understand hospitalists' perceptions of satisfaction metrics on pain management, the authors conducted 25 interviews with hospitalists. Transcribed interviews were systematically analyzed to identify emergent themes. Hospitalists felt institutional pressure to earn high satisfaction scores for pain, which they perceived influenced practices toward opioid prescribing. They felt tying compensation to satisfaction scores commoditized pain. Hospitalists believed satisfaction would improve with increased time spent at the bedside. Focusing on methods to improve patient-physician communication, while maintaining efficiency in clinical practice, may promote both patient-centered pain management and satisfaction.

The hospitalist perspective on opioid prescribing: A qualitative analysis.

BACKGROUND: Pain is a frequent symptom among patients in the hospital. Pain management is a key quality indicator for hospitals, and hospitalists are encouraged to frequently assess and treat pain. Optimal opioid prescribing, described as safe, patient-centered, and informed opioid prescribing, may be at odds with the priorities of current hospital care, which focuses on patient-reported pain control rather than the potential long-term consequences of opioid use. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to understand physicians' attitudes, beliefs, and practices toward opioid prescribing during hospitalization and discharge. DESIGN: In-depth, semistructured interviews. SETTING: Two university hospitals, a safety-net hospital, a Veterans Affairs hospital, and a private hospital located in Denver, Colorado or Charleston, South Carolina. PARTICIPANTS: Hospitalists (N = 25). MEASUREMENTS: We systematically analyzed transcribed interviews and identified emerging themes using a team-based mixed inductive and deductive approach. RESULTS: Although hospitalists felt confident in their ability to control acute pain using opioid medications, they perceived limited success and satisfaction when managing acute exacerbations of chronic pain with opioids. Hospitalists recounted negative sentinel events that altered opioid prescribing practices in both the hospital setting and at the time of hospital discharge. Hospitalists described prescribing opioids as a pragmatic tool to facilitate hospital discharges or prevent readmissions. At times, this left them feeling conflicted about how this practice could impact the patient over the long term. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies to provide adequate pain relief to hospitalized patients, which allow hospitalists to safely and optimally prescribe opioids while maintaining current standards of efficiency, are urgently needed. Journal of Hospital Medicine 2016;11:536-542. © 2016 Society of Hospital Medicine.